The present invention relates to a clip for sealing the ends of a sleeve located around a piezoelectric actuator to the body of that piezoelectric actuator.
In a fuel injector a piezoelectric actuator may be located in an accumulator volume which receives high pressure fuel. It is essential to prevent contact between the fuel and the actuator to prevent the actuator from suffering damage. To prevent such damage it is known to provide a sleeve 2 around the actuator 1. This sleeve 2 must be sealed to the actuator 1 at each end to prevent the ingress of fuel and any contaminants that it may contain.
It is known to provide a metallic sealing ring 3 around the end of the sleeve 2 to seal the end of the actuator 1. Such an arrangement is described in DE102005024710 and DE102006026932 and shown in FIG. 1. However, such known arrangement is expensive and difficult to install and is very temperature dependent, relying on the use of expensive alloys to avoid differential thermal expansion between the actuator and the sealing ring.